Hey guys. This is Gene Jensen with BassResource.com, and it's time for another tip of the day. I'm telling you, confidence is one of the most, if not the most important thing when it comes to bass fishing or any type of fishing. If you don't have confidence in the bait that you're throwing, in the spot that you're at, in anything, if you lose the confidence in what you're doing at the time, the likelihood of you catching a fish is slim to none.

What do you do to achieve that level of confidence? Let's talk about baits in particular. If you don't have confidence in a bait, you either change or you do something to gain confidence in that bait. For instance, let's talk about today and what happened to me today. I don't have a whole lot of confidence in jerkbaits. I just don't fish them enough.

The water temperature hardly ever gets really cold and cold enough to fish a jerkbait, and if it does, it's usually for only a few weeks. So I don't get a lot of practice. My goal this winter was to gain confidence in a jerkbait. So how did I do it? I went out on my boat and I fished nothing but a jerkbait. I left everything that I love, all my favorite lures, my JJ's Magic, my worms, everything and I left them all at home.

I grabbed my jerkbait rod. I do have my Rat-L-Trap rod. I didn't think I would be using it just because of the water temperature, but it is on the deck. I fished only that jerkbait today, and I'm telling you I had a great day. The drawback or the problems I had with a jerkbait before today wasn't that I couldn't catch fish on it. I've caught fish on a jerkbait before. I just didn't have the confidence that I would be able to set the hook on a fish and a few other things.

Let me explain. When I'm jerkbait fishing, I can't feel the bite and it bugs me. I'm more the type of people I fish a jig or I fish a worm and things like that, and I love to feel the bite. On a jerkbait they're just all of a sudden on there. I was watching a video the other day, and it explained that that's just what happens. That's jerkbait fishing. You're jerking and you pause and you go to a slack line and they'll hit it and when you go to jerk again and they're on it, well when you jerk and you feel them you just follow through with that hook set.

I took that advice and I came out here, and like I said, I fished this jerkbait all day long and it has been a blast. I pulled up in a pocket a little while ago and I caught eight or nine fish without moving the boat on a jerkbait. I'm telling you, if you guys want to catch fish on a bait you don't have confidence in and you want to gain confidence in that bait, then fish it. Don't fish anything else. Leave your favorite confidence lures at home and go out and fish that bait.

Now, fishing under ideal conditions or fishing under the conditions you would normally fish it, but go out and catch fish on that bait and you'll gain confidence in it. You don't have to be an expert on a bait or on a lure to catch fish. Like I always say, visit BassResource.com for the answers to all your questions about bass fishing and have a great day.